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U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Reinstate Oklahoma Law Requiring Ultrasound Before Abortions

U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Reinstate Oklahoma Law Requiring Ultrasound Before Abortions

Religious persecution, missions, Christianity around the world

2013Nov 15

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The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a case that would reinstate ultrasounds before abortions in Oklahoma, Christian News reports. Last December, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled it was unconsitutional to require abortionists to perform an ultrasound, describing the view of the unborn baby in detail an hour before ending the child's life. The court pointed back to Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, which says state laws cannot inhibit a woman's ability to obtain an abortion.

“Because the United States Supreme Court has previously determined the dispositive issue presented in this manner, this court is not free to impose its own view of the law,” the justices wrote.

The Center for Reproductive Rights prasied the courts decision. President Nancy Northrup said in a statement, “Today the U.S. Supreme Court has let stand another strong decision by the Oklahoma courts protecting a woman’s constitutional right to make her own decisions about whether to continue a pregnancy from the intrusion of politicians opposed to her rights and indifferent to her health.”

But National Right to Life director Mary Spaulding Balch had a decidely different perspective. “Ultrasound laws save lives,” she said. “According to a 2011 Quinnipiac University study, ‘ultrasound requirement laws reduce the odds of a woman having an abortion quite substantially.’ This finding would explain why ultrasound laws provoke such powerful reactions of our opponents even though ultrasounds are routinely performed and are required by abortion providers prior to the performance of any abortion.”